Jamtara gang has shifted base to avoid detection for cyber mischief, say Bengal police
Telegraph | 15 February 2025
Bengal police on Thursday said the so-called Jamtara gang is now branching out to different parts of the country, including Bengal, to avoid detection.
Bengal police have arrested as many as 46 people accused of cyber fraud in the past month. The figures do not include the arrests made by Kolkata Police. Sources in the police said the combined figure would be many times more.
Some of those arrested have been identified as Jamrata gang members.
“They (the Jamtara gang members) are now spreading across the country. They are operating from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and other places, including Bengal. To avert the attention of the police, they have fanned across the country,” said additional director-general of police, South Bengal, Supratim Sarkar.
Jamatara in Jharkhand had grabbed headlines for the proliferation of gangs specialising in cyber fraud.
Bengal police have received more than 250 cyber fraud complaints in the past month, officers said on Thursday.
“We keep getting complaints of cybercrime at police stations and the cybercrime wing of Bengal police. But in the past month alone we noticed that there was a spurt in complaints, especially from the western zone comprising Birbhum, Chandernagore, parts of Hooghly, Asansol-Durgapur commissionerate and East Burdwan,” Sarkar said.
The complaints that poured in included phishing messages, threats of digital arrest, online job rackets and fake investment schemes.
“In the past month alone, there were more than 250 complaints from Birbhum, Chandernagore, parts of Hooghly, Asansol-Durgapur commissionerate and East Burdwan. This prompted us to set up a team led by DIG, cybercrime, Amit Kumar Rathod, and we named this Operation Cyber Shakti,” additional director general Sarkar said.
The team led by Rathod has been split into 10 subgroups.
The smaller teams, comprising cyber experts from Bengal police, had fanned across the areas from where maximum cases were reported, Sarkar said.
“Our first success came a fortnight ago with the arrest of three men from Khairashole in Birbhum. It was found that they were connected to the Jamtara gang. The gang was providing support to these people,” Sarkar said.
Rathod said a series of “targeted raids” were carried out in Birbhum, Chandernagore, Hooghly, Asansol-Durgapur commissionerate and East Burdwan.
The drive against cyber criminals will continue, he said.
Till now, the police have seized 84 mobile phones and as many SIM cards, two laptops and more than 100 debit and credit cards. Over 100 mule accounts have been frozen.
The police said the 46 people arrested were not members of one large gang. They were operating in smaller groups from areas close to Jamtara, the police said.
The senior officers explained that some of the most common ways of cybercrime were to send phishing messages or emails in the name of companies to fish for personal banking details of the recipients.
“Phishing, digital arrest threat, fake job scam, fake investment schemes, fake gas connections and sextortion are used to cheat people,” Sarkar said.